By Shaun Inguanzo
ONE OF Dandenong’s most renowned restaurants has quietly disappeared.
All that remains of the Thomas Street-based Sinbad Lebanese restaurant is its familiar facade, and on top of the building, a real estate sign stating the premises have now been leased out to another client.
The restaurant has now become the Tengri Tag restaurant, which specialises in oriental food.
Sinbad owner John Camillo, 62, told Star he had retired, but would continue leasing the shopfront.
“I’ve got 10 years of youth left and figure I will use the 87,000 hours with more flexibility and access to a variety of life experiences, so that when I am put in the ground I will be a worthy fertilizer for the earth,” Mr Camillo said.
The charming head chef – who often told his customers what they were going to eat – fell in love with the Lebanese cuisine as a customer.
His love affair with anything from hummus to felafels prompted him to purchase the business in 2000 when the previous owner indicated he was going to sell.
“So I bought the place and spent a year learning from him,” Mr Camillo wrote in a 2005 edition of Greater Dandenong Council’s The City magazine.
Mr Camillo upheld and gave further weight to the restaurant’s reputation with his dashing banquets and outstanding service.
In 2003 he moved Sinbad from Langhorne Street to Thomas Street.
Mr Camillo was also known for his keen interest and outspoken comments regarding Greater Dandenong’s revitalisation.
In May he called for traders to support a concept that would turn central Dandenong into an outdoor, undercover marketplace the size of Chadstone.
Mr Camillo was also a driving force in pressuring the council to open Thomas Street’s multilevel carpark later at night to curb the issue of a lack of on-street parking.
